Are you interested in learning how to make your own video essays? If so, I've got some exciting news. I'm exploring the possibility of putting together a cohort based course where I can teach video essay skills. This would involve working directly with me and a small group of your peers to put together your own video essay. It would be a hands on class where we would have live sessions learning skills and analyzing other video essays. This would be less about hard skills like editing in After Effects, and more about high concept knowledge like ideation, creating and sticking to a schedule, writing scripts, and finding visual inspiration. Right now, I think the price for the first cohort would be ~$800, but I am still playing around with that. If this is the sort of thing that seems interesting to you, please apply here: @t The more interest this gets, the more likely it is that this course will come to fruition, so please share this link around as well. Thanks, Polyphonic
The thing so stupid about record companies doing this blocking stuff on educational videos like this is: I’ve known about RHCP for years, but watching this was an unintentional PR for the band. I never really listened to them, but now, I wanna get all their albums.
Flea is not over rated. He’s perfectly rated in his bass playing. Don’t confuse people over rating his skills with praising him as a person or band member.
@@gj4312 Many people see him as an uncontested bass god, which is just not true. He's good, but nowhere near as good as people make him out to be. It's the Cliff Burton situation all over again
@LRed13 but he is one of the greatest bass players. I don't agree with the norm of musicians being idolized to the level of God or such but he is on par with John entwistle
I interviewed Flea for a documentary, recently. He attended USC school of music at the time. He talked about his love of music. He is a scholar of music and composition. He said "I love notes, I love the spaces in-between the notes, I just love every aspect of music". How many rock stars continue their quest for musical prowess past the peak of their career.
To me, this has always been one of the most impressive things about Flea: he was already a rock star, and then he signed up for school to learn more... Better yet, his new formal education shows in RHCP's later albums.
@@unreborn haha yeah that is fun to imagine, I can see it in front of me: The teacher is all insecure and stuff and Flea, the nice and humble guy he is is like "I'm just a guy here to learn" and encourages the teacher in the teaching.
When just the guitar to californication was playing, my mind was just automatically putting in the bass. it shows how different he is to most other bassists; as in, a large amount of rock bassists don't add much to many tracks, while flea make up a large majority of most tracks
You see, it may be the other way around. Of course Flea is a great player and it wouldn't happen to any random dude there, but the fact that he has his "space" on the band's songs is really important. Put Flea at a crowded band like Iron Maiden with their 3 guitars, and he won't have anywhere to be that awesome. I'm not saying that Steve Harris is better than him or the opposite, I'just trying to make a point that Flea being a legend and Red Hot's way to use the bassline are correlated.
I tried to use a random example of bassist relevant to the band, but in a different way. You can take someone like Glenn Hughes at Deep Purple/Black Country Communion as another instance. Hughes is an amazing bass player, but (most of) the songs of these bands use the bass as a background. If the bands allowed Hughes' bass to be at the "front" of their sound, he could be as recognised as Flea. Again, I'm using just one example. That aplies to any good bass player. And again, I don't intend to underrate Flea with this; I just think it's interesting to think how the bands make the players and vice-versa.
Fernando Mecca Of course, it depends on the kind of music/style of the band, way of playing, etc. If the bass player is going to have the opportunity to show off his skills, maybe a little example would be Jason Newsted, when Metallica didn't let him be (on purpose), he couldn't show how a magnificent bass player he was, as the kind of band he was playing on and the space he had to do his music. I guess.
@@launder0 I agree 100% with the point you're making, but like the video stated, what really made Flea stand out was how he brought the Funk to the rock world. There was always rock in funk but for the most part, rock never seemed to embrace funk. He brought those worlds together while still having his individual style so as to not sound like if he was just copying funk bass legends like Bootsy Collins or Larry Graham. It's one of the reasons I love RHCP and respect them.
Flea is the reason I’m so into music, and the reason I play bass and guitar.. but this has a big disadvantage tho.. it took me too much time to finally understand what is the real role of bass in a band. As people are saying here in the comments, the ‘space’ flea has always had to play bass in RhCP is not common at all.
@@UCABrSfFxOw_91MsYSwPABqQ Lots of metal bands (definitely got some distortion there) still have prominent bass guitarists - Möterhead the most infamous ofc, but Metallica (especially the Burton years) is also a good example of how to get basslines that stand out in a sound with lot's of distorted guitars. But in case you're in a more modern sounding band, with downtuned/8 string guitars, perhaps going the Korn route might work. Or focus more on your higher frets, those can cut through those heavily distorted, downtuned guitars with a lot of character, since those guitars will never have the deep/warm sound a bass guitar has in that range
As a die hard chilis fan, I can say I was impressed by this video. You can tell it wasn't just thrown together using their greatest radio hits it included a variety of lesser known songs (even some pre BSSM work!)
Flea: "You know pac-man?" Kiedis: "I know of him” Flea: "he was almost called punk-man but they realized you could scratch out that p and turn it into an f"
Flea is the best showman...the best musician that has created his own style...i love his work on dark necessities so much...i dance to it a lot and never tire of him...i just put him on a loop and watch him over and over. My favorite always.
Flea kicks ASS! How many people know that every RHCP album is actually two different records? Try this: listen to the album as you normally do, then turn up the bass and play it again - that's when you get to experience the Flea version!
“Goodbye Angels” in the Getaway album is by far my favorite rhcp song. In the last minute or so flea goes fucking nuts with the best bass riff to have ever been written. And then Klinghoffer takes over on guitar takes over for a few seconds. Then both klinghoffer and flea start jamming out together to make possibly my favorite minute of music ever.
@@lerynnrynn2249 something I've noticed in music is, the more simple and freeform it is the more complicated yet amazing it becomes. Simplicity is quite possibly the most complicated and genius part of playing, and I love it each time
can we just appreciate how beautiful this video essay is? Amazing work dude, you gave me new found appreciation for flea and red hot chili peppers in whole
the actual bass lines from their recorded songs, as a bassist its really easy to learn and copy. but when they are playing live? his adlibs, the way he put all those scales and how perfect it was, his moves. no one can copy those. he is my bass god
With the amount of crap that finds its way onto RU-vid nowadays, this is refreshing to see. It's easy to tell that you actually care about producing quality videos, and that results in something that's educational, entertaining and fun to watch. Subbed. Keep up the great work!
I'm absolutely blessed to be a member of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, which he helped found along with Anthony. He shows up at our recitals and events. A really awesome dude.
Steve Harris, Flea, and Cliff Burton are my favorite bassist out of the 80s. Easily! All three a divergent geniuses in their own way. Awesome video. Thanks for posting.
i love his bass work on "By The Way". how he links up with with Chad's jungle beat and the muted 16ths on guitar while still maintaining the lead, it makes a really driving piece
It kind of annoys me how every "alternative" music critic likes to shit on the chili peppers nowadays. Just look at their freaking body of work, flea and frusciante are simply part of the best when it comes to their specific instrument, it's nearly inarguable.
Fun Fact: the slapping/popping style of bass guitar was developed completely by accident by Larry Graham of the band Graham Central Station. He was in a church band with his mother. For whatever reason one day she fired the drummer. Graham, reacting to the lack of a drummer in the band, decided to use the bass as percussive instrument. The slap mimicking the kick drum and the pop expressing the snare. It opened up a completely new dimension to the bass guitar. Fascinating how some things in music come about in very unconventional ways. Grand Wizard Theodore accidentally creating what's known today as scratching and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, who lost the tips of his middle and ring fingers in an accident in a factory as teenager. This impacted his playing and led him to develop the guitar style gave birth to Heavy Metal.
Flea is undeniably the best bass player to ever play for the exact reasons this narrator mentioned. He's able to sync is sound with the guitar player and the drummer, but the way he does it is... It's simply phenomenal sounds, pops, licks and grooves coming from the bass of God himself. No one has ever done what he does and it will be hard to find someone after he leaves... which is never cause he's a God lol
I went their concert in either 98 or 99, and my 13 year old daughter in 2020 says they are one of the 3 bands she wants to see in concert. I'm so proud of her (and me for teaching her good music).
Frusciante is another interesting part of their sound. He fits in that argument where a guitar player can pick up any guitar and amp and sound like themselves no matter what. Frusciantes whole body is thrown into his playing and attack which seems to come through the way the strings vibrate. He sounds unique on everything he does, simple, complex, not necessarily precise or technical, but full of feeling. He’s not just playing the guitar, he’s crafting a sonic space and not afraid to experiment with sound. Guitar is just the vehicle he rode in on.
Does anyone feel like frusciante is the unsung hero of the chili peppers(besides chad)? People always seem to make videos of flea and his brilliant bass skill. But never frusciante. His ability to manifest feeling into the music is unparalleled.
I think Frusciante is no usung hero by far. People and fans love him and he is greatly appreciated for his work. When he joined the band they became world-famous. Flea is a great musician, and I think Frusciante is as well.
If you want to know what makes the chili peppers who they are. The first person to look for is john. He was the soul of the band. And i feel like not enough credit is given to john by the people who make videos on the them. its very difficult to make a video on how a guy can use 3 or 4 notes in a solo and make it a heart-wrenching piece of music.
Glad you brought up Dark Necessities. Every time I hear that song all I can focus on is the brilliant bass and the flawless switching from walking to slap.
Very interesting. I am not a funk or punk aficionado. My era was 60's, 70's, 80's music. I'm 74 now. Your video helped me gain a new appreciation for bass player Flea. Very talented. I like his bass. A few months ago I discovered Freddy Mercury and Queen. Amazing artists and musicians.
It's never too late to discover talented musicians. Here's a very good "early" rh chili peppers song that I can recommend (if you don't already know it) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eJ8sL1wLUVQ.html
Larry called it "Thumping and Plucking." That is a far better description - but a little clunky. I guess with later parlance it's slapping and popping. But slapping is really from slap bass - which is a style of acoustic stand up from the 1920's! But it's a similiar technique. Popping seems to work. Another great post, Poly!
Growing up in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, I was always drawn to all kinds of rock, classic rock, rock and roll, hard rock, heavy metal, etc...but I was never really drawn to this genre of music until I heard Infectious Grooves in the early 90’s and the lyrics, energy but especially the BASS playing by Robert Trujillo was amazing! Infectious Grooves is truly the best band you will never hear of.
